Bob Quick's five years with Surrey Police began when he joined the force as deputy chief constable in January 2003.

One of his first moves was to stamp out a series of all-night raves taking place throughout the county that summer.

Unauthorised parties in Cranleigh, Gomshall and West Horsley led to the formation of a 22-strong team dedicated to gathering intelligence and shutting down the events.

In September that year, Surrey Police apologised to the relatives of four young soldiers who had died at the Deepcut army barracks between 1995 and 2002.

Inquests returned open verdicts on three of the deaths while one was recorded as suicide, but the families involved expressed their dissatisfaction at the way investigations were conducted.

Mr Quick conceded that Surrey Police should not have handed jurisdiction to the Ministry of Defence as soon as it had.

Neighbourhood policing

In July 2004, he expressed concern at an annual 11% rise in violent crime throughout the county, with a crackdown on anti-social behaviour and alcohol-fuelled offences following.

The following November, the same month Mr Quick was promoted to chief constable, a government white paper called for a greater emphasis on neighbourhood policing.

Surrey Police was ahead of the game in this respect, confirming that many of the recommendations had been implemented three years previously.

In February 2005, Mr Quick decided against giving Surrey’s army of police community support officers the power to detain suspected criminals.

“As a police force, we could end up in civil court being sued and I don’t have the appetite for that,” he said at the time.

Joint best performing

Seven months later, Mr Quick set tougher targets to tackle racially and sexually-motivated attacks after clear-up rates for hate crimes fell by more than 5% to 23.4% in 2004/2005.

Government plans to merge Surrey with a neighbouring police force were met with criticism from the chief constable in December 2005, before they were eventually scrapped six months later.

In November 2006, an independent inquiry cleared Mr Quick of misconduct after he was accused of inappropriately trying to have Terry Dicks, a local councillor, removed from Surrey Police Authority.

Under Mr Quick’s leadership, Surrey Police was graded as the joint best performing police force in the country in October last year, but he took the opportunity to criticise the government and continue his ongoing calls for more investment in the force.

His latest significant action as chief constable came in December, when he announced a reduction in the number of policing divisions in Surrey from four to three, blaming a lack of funding for the change.